How long does shoulder pain last after laparoscopic surgery? i had a lap for an ectopic pregnancy yesterday and i am feeling a lot of pain in my shoulder. i think it may be from the intraabdominal gas they use to blow up the belly during surgery. how lo

This : This shoulder pain is a common complaint following laparoscopic surgery. This type of pain is called referred pain. It is due to irritation of the diaphragm from the insufflation (filling) of the abdominal cavity with gas. While most of the gas is removed at the end of the operation a few bubbles may remain and often once you are upright they move up and sit under the diaphragm. The phrenic nerve which enervates the diaphragm comes from the same nerve roots which enervate the shoulder. For this reason you will feel the discomfort from the diaphragm as shoulder pain. The gas does not take long to be absorbed by the inner lining of your abdominal cavity and then the pain will be gone. This rarely takes longer than 48 hours and usually much less. Walking can be helpful and is a good thing to do after surgery anyway to keep your lungs healthy. For some this shoulder pain is worse than the surgical pain so it is nice to know it doesn't last that long. If you have ongoing pain, fever, or feel it is getting worse not better contact your surgeon to be evaluated.

Very common: This is very common. The co2 gas that is used to inflate your abdomen causes irritation of the nerves that are under the diaphragm. This leads to what we call "referred pain", feeling like it actually your shoulder hurting. Only minimal gas is left behind and that absorbs quite quickly. The irritation will improve over a few days and it's unlikely to last more than 2-3 days, at most 4 days.

Varies: The gas pain will go away quickly in most cases. The specific time will depend on a number of factors including how long was the surgery, what was done during the surgery, how heavy is the patient, how quickly can the patient be up and ambulating, etc. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days.